Adventure Generation 1

These are some ideas from an unpublished Spider-Man supplement for a Marvel RPG.  These ideas should work for any setting.  I don’t have the original link and no author is listed on pdf I have, so sorry I can’t reference the material.

For a quick three scene adventure:

Choose three cool settings

Create a villain

Create a hook for the characters

First Scene: Start with immediate action that sets up a mystery.  A clue leads to the second scene.

Second Scene: Investigation of clue.  Minor obstacles, puzzles, interrogation, red herrings.  Revelation of the villain’s plan, or at least his location.

Third Scene: Showdown.  Villain attempts to enact his plan.  The characters are the only ones who are in a position to stop it.

Other Considerations:

Who are your players?  What kind of adventures do they like?

Choose NPC’s.  Villain henchmen, character allies, non-combatants to negotiate with, random belligerents

Objectives.  Beyond the primary objective: secondary goals, false objectives, bonus/opportunity objectives, and future plot hooks within those objectives

The following notes were part of a series by Wolfgang Baur.  I don’t remember where they were originally published, perhaps Dungeon Magazine.

Keep the backstory of an adventure simple and relevant to the characters.

Have encounters serve a point, avoid random ones, and trim excess ones.

Select monsters to a theme and give them a reason for being there.  Use variation for the chosen monsters, instead of adding random monsters.

Consider Challenge treasure.  Items gained from adventuring that are hard to remove, transport, or sell.  Items that are fragile, huge, a valuable animal, or makes the holder a target.  Property, land, noble titles.  Historic artifacts, that do not have any intrinsic monetary value, but are priceless. 

Make adventure motives personal to the characters: curiosity, fear/survival, greed, heroism/fame, loyalty/honor/duty, and revenge.  Consider also the Plot Twist that changes the characters’ motives during the adventure.

Vary the types of encounters to challenge the players and to give each character class a chance to shine.

Combat: Vary the danger of the encounters.  

Low-level: A light workout, probably only a nuisance or delay.  However, a long series of small encounters, without a chance to rest, can be dangerous (running a gauntlet).

High-level: Possibly lethal, but can’t be avoided, necessary to character goals.  If the foe is intelligent though, negotiation might be an option.

Big Finish: Face off against the main villain and his henchmen.  This kind of encounter should require the characters to use some strategy to defeat, not just a rush to battle.  Give the characters a reason and an opportunity to recon it first.

Magic: Traps, obstacles, or weird artifacts and their effects.  Usually require some special consideration to deal with.

Knowledge: Requires the characters to draw on previously gained experience or they will have to seek out the knowledge.

Puzzle or Trap: An encounter to waylay or delay the characters.  Traps should come with some sort of warning and may have a secondary feature, such as an alarm.  Puzzles may be a test of worthiness or require the characters to seek out something to solve it.  

Roleplaying: Encounters featuring negotiation, interrogation, and intelligence gathering.  Some potential combat encounters should have the option of negotiation.

Safe Haven: Give the characters a place to rest, regroup, and plan.